Bleaching agents have been commonly used in detergent compositions to assist in stain removal, as well as for whitening of fabrics.
In general, bleaches remove soil and colored stains from fabrics by oxidation to make the soil or stain more soluble, and thus more easily to remove it. Bleaches have also been used to whiten light colored fabrics that have suffered from yellowing over time and use.
The relative ability of the bleaching agent to meet various performance criteria is among others depending on the presence of adjunct detergent ingredients. As a consequence, the detergent formulator is faced with a difficult task of providing detergent compositions which have an excellent overall performance.
One of the types of adjunct detergent ingredients that is added to detergent compositions are dye transfer inhibiting polymers.
Said polymers are added to detergent compositions in order to inhibit the transfer of dyes from colored fabrics onto other fabrics washed therewith. These polymers have the ability to complex or adsorb the fugitive dyes washed out of dyed fabrics before the dyes have the opportunity to become attached to other articles in the wash.
Polymers have been used within detergent compositions to inhibit dye transfer. Copending European Patent Application N.degree. 92202168.8 describes polyamine N-oxide containing polymers which are very efficient in eliminating transfer of solubilized or suspended dyes.
It has now been found that polyamine N-oxide containing polymers are very compatible with bleaching agents. In addition, it has been found that the dye transfer inhibiting performance of the polyamine N-oxide containing polymers has been increased in the presence of bleaching agents.
This finding allows us to formulate detergent compositions which have both excellent dye transfer inhibiting properties and overall detergency performance.
According to another embodiment of this invention a process is also provided for laundering operations involving colored fabrics.